Basic Trope: A character's love for tea indicates their wealth/prestigious status.
- Straight: Lady Alice Highborn spends every afternoon having a tea party, taking dainty sips from her fancy china cup, while her butler stands behind her, ready to refill her cup when she runs out.
- Exaggerated: Lady Alice is from the most noble and ancient houses in her country, and she spends every moment of her waking hour seated at a portable patio equipped with the most magnificent tea spreads, which she offers to anyone she comes across.
- Downplayed: Alice is an heiress of a large business, and she tends to order tea at cafes/restaurants, while her "commoner" peers prefer coffee, juice, or just water.
- Justified: Tea leaves are very expensive, so only the rich can buy them. These Blue Bloods drink tea whenever they can to flaunt their wealth.
- Inverted:
- Tea is considered a type of undesirable weed, and only the poorest of the population would want to make use of the plant for consumption.
- "Rough Ruffian" Clay spends every evening out in the pub, taking sloppy, drunken gulps from his crude scotch whiskey, while sitting at a table full of other patrons, ready to snatch a drink when he runs out.
- Subverted: Lady Alice is often seen having "tea parties", but it is later revealed that the liquid in her cup isn't tea. It's lemonade.
- Double Subverted: ???
- Parodied:
- The moment Lady Alice starts drinking her tea, her attire inexplicably transforms into a Pimped-Out Dress, her hair curls into Regal Ringlets, and she adopts a British accent. She returns to normal when she's finished with her party.
- (of Inverted) The moment Clay starts drinking his beer, his attire inexplicably transforms into a thuggish dress shirt, slacks, and suspenders, his hair swiftly grows barbaric, and he adopts a thick Glasgow accent. He returns to normal when he's finished with his cup.
- Zigzagged: ???
- Averted:
- None of the characters are wealthy, or none of them drink tea.
- Alternatively, both the rich and middle-class characters drink tea, and there are no obvious connections between the beverage and the drinker's economic status.
- Enforced: The work entirely takes place in a high school where everyone wears the same uniform, so having the Token Rich Student constantly have a tea party during lunch break (or even during class times) is a quick way to indicate her wealth without having to break from the school setting to show off her Big Fancy House. It also allows otherwise underage characters to show themselves as being wealthy and classy without depicting them drinking alcohol with wine.
- Lampshaded: "What do commoners like you know about tea?"
- Invoked: Alice is a Penny Among Diamonds who traded her coffee for tea to fit in better with her wealthier peers.
- Exploited: A professional burglar visits the local cafe and marks the tea drinkers as potential targets, as they are obviously wealthier, and thus more lucrative to rob.
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Played For Laughs: ???
- Played For Drama: ???
Back to Tea Is Classy.
